Louis Georges Gouy

Louis Georges Gouy

Louis Georges Gouy was a French physicist who was born at Vals-les-Bains, Ardèche in 1854 and died January 27 1926. He is the namesake of the Gouy balance, the Gouy-Chapman electric double layer model (which is a relatively succesful albeit limited model that describes the electrical double-layer which finds applications in vast areas of studies from physical chemiastry to biophysics) and the Gouy phase shift.

He became a correspondent of the Académie des sciences in 1901, and a member in 1913.

Topics investigated

His principal scientific work was related to the following subjects:

• The propagation velocity of light waves in dispersive media.
• Propagation of spherical waves of small radius.
• Distant diffraction (angles of dispersion reaching 150°)
• Electrostatics: Inductive capacity of dielectrics
• Effect of the magnetic field on the discharge in rarefied gases
• Electrocapillarity
• Emission capacity of absorbent of the coloured flames
• Brownian motion
• Measurement of magnetic susceptibility of transition metal complexes with Gouy balance

Solvay conference of 1913. Louis Georges Gouy is in the first row on the right

Further reading

• L. G. Gouy La Nature n°2708 du 27 février 1926